21 april 2014

Last Saturday I visited the World Press Photo exhibition at the 15th century Nieuwe Kerk ('New Church'), at the Dam square in Amsterdam. The exhibition features over 150 remarkable photographs in 9 categories.
Somehow the setting of a church adds so much to this photo exhibition, like the Der-Aa Church in Groningen that hosted the WPP last November. (click HERE to see a few images from my visit there). If you happen to be in Amsterdam, it's recommendable.

20 april 2014

This is inside the Beurs van Berlage, in the centre of Amsterdam. The building was designed as a commodity exchange and constructed around 1900. This was no doubt the entrance of one of the vaults, currently used as exhibition room displaying '100 years of advertising' with famous people from the Netherlands.

18 april 2014

The renovated building that you see here is known as 'De Oude Remise' ('The Old Roundhouse'). It was once in use by the National Railway for servicing locomotives here in this town Bad Nieuweschans. The building dates from 1877 and had enough room inside for 12 locomotives.
From 1948 until 1980 the local bus company used it as their garage. Nowadays it's officially a heritage site and is home to a grand café, a tourist and archeological information site, and the (see and do) Lego Museum Bricks Art.

16 april 2014

Signs like these are everywhere in Bruges, so hope you like them as much as I do as I will continue to post them the coming Wednesdays :)
This is another one from a hotel in the city centre, from 'De Koetse' (more or less literally 'The Carriage')

13 april 2014

This is a detail of the original choir stalls used by monks in the former Monastery in Ter Apel. Some of the chairs have decorated faces, picturing both human virtues -the nun at the left stands for devotion, as well as sins -the ears stand for curiosity.

The Monastery, start and end of our hike today, was built in 1465 and is located along the ancient trade route from Münster (in Germany) to the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. It was once a place of hospitality and dedication for passing travellers and pilgrims. Nowadays the historic building is a Museum for Monastery, Church History and Religious Art.

11 april 2014

The Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen has a nice collection of 'gapers'. A gaper is a stone or wooden head on the front of a building in the Netherlands, indicating that this building is a pharmacy. The literal translation would be 'yawner', as the figure is always displayed with an open mouth, and sometimes you can see a pill he has taken resting on his tongue. In fact he wasn't yawning, but opening his mouth to take medicine.

6 april 2014

We visited the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen today, and learned all there is to tell about the people who once lived on the shores of the Zuiderzee. The exhibitions focus on the themes of water, craft and communities. One of the rooms in the indoor museum showed a variety of folk costumes that people from several fishing towns used to wear in the past, and in some cases even wear today. The caps on the photo are made of lace and belong to the traditional folk costume for women. In Dutch a cap like this is called 'hul'.

5 april 2014

When searching for a photo for today I found this one from nearly 20 years ago, taken during a trip we made by motorbike in the Harz in Germany. This food truck (most likely a former army field kitchen) called 'KUKKI'S' was on a parking place, serving 'Erbsensuppe mit Bockwurst': pea soup with German sausage.

2 april 2014

The béguinage ('begijnhof' in Dutch) in Bruges is a lovely and peaceful place, and is visited by many tourists each day.

The collection of small buildings around a courtyard was used by Beguines. These were sisterhoods of the Roman Catholic church, and the women who lived here could serve God without retiring from the world.

Signs like these, and there are many (!), ask you to respect silence in this place.

1 april 2014

Today was a special day: I celebrated my 25th anniversary at the office! My colleagues had decorated my desk abundantly and together we enjoyed eating this cake. On it is (or should I say: 'was') an edible photo made in the early 1990's with my colleagues at that time. :)